WRAPUP 2-U.S. piles pressure on Afghan leader

(For more coverage of Afghanistan, click on [nAFPAK])

* Pressure intensifies on Karzai before inauguration

* Obama looks at timelines for troops, exit strategy

* No decision to be announced until after Obama trip

* U.S. ambassador resists troops rise (Adds White House spokesman, German foreign minister and White House cost estimates)

By Sue Pleming and Adam Entous

WASHINGTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The United States squeezed Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday to show more backbone in fighting corruption and mismanagement as President Barack Obama weighed sending more troops and for how long.

Obama left for a week-long trip to Asia amid revelations his ambassador to Kabul, ex-military commander Karl Eikenberry, had expressed deep concerns about sending in more troops until Karzai's government improved its performance.

Senior officials said Obama had discussed Eikenberry's concerns, sent via diplomatic memos, during a war cabinet meeting at the White House where several options were laid out for the president as he deliberates his strategy for the increasingly unpopular war.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Obama called for more information on timelines for troop levels and when Afghan security forces would be competent to take over, according to several U.S. officials.

"It's important to examine not just how we're going to get folks in but how we're going to get folks out," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

He said a successful U.S. strategy was "most dependent on the Afghan government being a proven partner." The Obama administration, he said, was working on agreements with Karzai's government over what it needed to do.

"That's part of his (Obama's) desire to get a sense of where we are rather than committing to an open-ended conflict," Gibbs said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also made this point during a visit to Wisconsin, telling reporters the issue was how best to show resolve while signaling to the Afghans and the American people that it was not an "open-ended commitment."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she shared concerns raised by a number of leaders about corruption in Afghanistan, a lack of transparency, poor governance and absence of the rule of law.

"Corruption is corrosive in a society," she told reporters on a trip to the Philippines. "The corruption issue really goes to the heart of whether the people of Afghanistan feel that the government is on their side, is working for them."

In Kabul, German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Karzai must step up efforts to root out crime and corruption.

"Just paying lip service isn't good enough. The Afghan government has to meet these targets," he said.

Germany has about 4,200 soldiers in Afghanistan, the third-largest contingent in the NATO mission that is made up of 67,000 U.S. troops and 42,000 from allied nations.

CONCRETE STEPS

Gibbs said Obama's decision would not be announced until after he returns from the Nov. 12-20 Asia trip. He gave no time but said there probably would be another war cabinet meeting.

Republicans have criticized Obama for taking so long to announce his decision and a new poll by Zogby Interaction found that nearly half of those surveyed viewed the lengthy deliberations as a sign of weakness by the president.

Obama's strategy review has involved, among other elements, how to combine some of the best features of various options presented to him by his advisors, Gates said.

Proposals to send at least 30,000 more U.S. troops have been gaining support from key advisors, including Gates and military chiefs, as part of an expanded counter-insurgency plan.

Obama did not reject the proposed troop options, which range from 10,000 to about 40,000 additional troops, one official said.

"He wants to see it as a complete package" that includes goals for handing over security responsibilities to Afghan forces, the official added.

White House budget director Peter Orszag estimated it costs roughly $10 billion extra per year for every 10,000 troops deployed, so a surge of 40,000 troops would cost about $40 billion more.

U.S. officials familiar with Obama's deliberations said his team was trying to increase pressure on Karzai -- who will be inaugurated for a second term next week -- so he would commit to concrete steps on security, governance and corruption.

Precisely what leverage the United States has with Karzai is unclear but there is impatience over his attitude so far.

U.S. officials have been disappointed by many of Karzai's public comments, particularly during a PBS interview last week in which he appeared to blame Western donors for causing much of the corruption.

"It is less about securing leverage but how that informs your own strategy. You work out what sort of partner you have and determine your own force level," said one Western diplomat.

A core element of Western strategy will be to bolster military training for local forces in Afghanistan so it does not become a safe haven for militants, the head of NATO said.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in an interview with BBC Television that he shared Eikenberry's concerns about sending more troops to Afghanistan but that the allies should commit to more training for Afghan forces.

But he added: "We are in Afghanistan for the sake of our own security and therefore we should stay committed and stay for as long as it takes to finish the job." (Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Anchorage, Alaska; Phil Stewart and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Jim Wolf in Oshkosh, Wisconsin; Editing by John O'Callaghan)